When I first heard of Karishma Manzur’s bid for U.S. Senate, it was shortly after New Hampshire’s senators broke rank to end Trump’s government shutdown without any extension to desperately-needed healthcare subsidies. As a Dartmouth student active in left-wing politics, the betrayal hit close to home. I had already been frustrated with the mediocre direction of the Democratic Party — impotent in the face of the affordability crisis and ever-more authoritarian overreach from the Trump administration — and the news left me feeling more alienated than I ever had from the party.
That’s why, for me, hearing about Manzur’s campaign felt like finding a message in a bottle on a deserted island — in other words, a lifeline out of our current mess.
In many ways, Manzur’s platform checks all the boxes for what the future of the Democratic Party needs: a strong focus on voter needs paired with an unwavering commitment to progressive values. The recent disasters of Democratic Party politics, including the failure of Hillary Clinton’s identity politics in 2016 and as well as Biden and Harris’s pragmatism in 2024, have shown us that focusing on rhetoric without substance or on policy without vision both precipitate the Trumpian political reality we live in today. The result: an economy in shambles, a democracy in crisis, and a world increasingly shifting away from the old American-led order.
It would be dramatic to say Manzur is the answer to all these problems, but, at the very least, her campaign is a step in the right direction.
Most exciting about her campaign is her clear, policy-oriented approach to addressing the issues facing ordinary Americans. Her background as a Ph.D.-holding scientist shines through in her facts-first, no-nonsense approach to policy; she is upfront about how she wants to address the country’s healthcare crisis by passing Medicare for All and shifting funds from inefficient, piecemeal government programs and subsidies to a centralized service. She is clear about how she plans to tackle the affordability crisis, an existential issue for many Americans and yet too often sidelined by establishment Democrats: expanding low-income housing and reigning in private equity. This clarity and simplicity is desperately needed by a party which has recently struggled to communicate — much less deliver — on a clear, action-oriented agenda to voters.
What sets her apart from other Democrats who are willing to talk about policy is her firm commitment to both progressive principles and bipartisanship. She’s not afraid to advocate openly for core demands from the progressive wing of the party, including abolishing Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and ending weapons transfers to Israel. At the same time, she’s explicit in her desire to talk with her partners on the right to find common ground to translate her priorities into action. Such a principles-first approach is necessary if Democrats are to win respect not only from voters, but from Republican legislators themselves; as we’ve clearly seen since 2016, a spineless party is an ineffective party. I’m a firm believer that the only way for Democrats to move forward is to take a page from Manzur’s book: Don’t compromise on principles, but don’t play up partisan politics, either.
Even so, being this open about her progressivism isn’t without risk. It should come as no surprise to anyone that AIPAC and other established lobbying groups are actively pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into establishment candidates in New Hampshire — including Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, the senators who broke party line on Trump’s shutdown — in an attempt to prevent any upsets similar to what happened with Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral victory in New York. Yet, rather than cave into such pressure, Manzur’s campaign has doubled down on her anti-PAC, grassroots position, and is funded entirely by individual donations, independent of special interest money. Such boldness will be necessary if our generation is to build a genuinely progressive Democratic Party in line with voters’ needs and priorities, not special interests.
Still, the future of her campaign is paved with challenges, and much work remains to be done before the midterm elections next fall. We need young people more than ever to enact the grassroots change we wish to see in the world, and we here at Dartmouth are now being presented with an excellent opportunity to contribute to that change. For those on campus who feel alienated and frustrated by an ineffective Democratic Party that doesn’t represent our interests, I encourage all of you to show out for Manzur next November, and to consider getting involved with her campaign.
Opinion articles represent the views of their author(s), which are not necessarily those of The Dartmouth.
Ramsey Alsheikh is an opinion editor, staff columnist, cartoonist, and aspiring jack-of-all trades. He is currently double majoring in Computer Science and Middle Eastern Studies modified with Jewish Studies.
